KAMPALA, 16 February, 2021 (TON): For the second time, the Ugandan military court denied bail to 36 members of the opposition party, NUP (National Unity Party).

Last year in December, 36 members of the opposition party were arrested during the campaign rally of the politician Bobi Wine in central Kampala.

Among those arrested include Ali Bukeniare and bodyguard Edward Ssebufu who are facing charges of illegal ownership of ammunition.

Though their movements were restrained, at least 13 out of 49 of those arrested were granted bail by the same military court.

"This court finds the sureties for suspects whose bail application was not objected to by the state substantial. There is merit in their bail application and the case is bail-able. However the 13 accused should not go beyond the boundaries of Kampala and Wakiso districts,” the court said.

Most suspects were charged with six counts, including inciting violence and assaulting police officers on duty, among others.

Lawyers Bobi Wine filed a challenge in the Supreme Court on February 4 against President Yoweri Museveni's victory in last month's election, claiming the poll was rigged.

However, taking into consideration the ongoing situation, the civil society activists have criticized the parameters for challenging Ugandan elections, and that judges only examine events on voting day and the declaration of results, without considering the overall campaign period.

LONDON, 16 February, 2021 (TON): Indian High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami has said his country never bosses Bangladesh around like a big brother.

Mr. Vikram said at the Diplomatic Correspondents Association Bangladesh on Monday, “Honestly speaking, Bangladeshis is a big country of 170 million people. So there is no reason to think like this.”

He said India prioritized relations with Bangladesh in its foreign policy and that the fearful perception that many Bangladeshis have about India is unfounded.

He also said his government’s failure to sign an agreement on sharing the water of the common river Teesta was an “unfortunate reality”.

However, he was forthright in saying that there is little possibility of a breakthrough anytime soon.

The official confirmed to resume travel visas for Bangladeshis sooner, but it depends on the management system of both countries.

NEW YORK, 16 February, 2021 (TON): Myanmar’s army has been warned by the UN special envoy of severe consequences for any harsh response to the protestors protesting against the coup, a UN spokesman said.

Despite the deployment of armored vehicles and soldiers to some major cities at the weekend, protesters have kept up demonstrations to denounce the 1 February takeover and demand the release of detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others.

Protests on Monday were smaller than the hundreds of thousands who had joined earlier demonstrations, and small crowds gathered in two places in the main city of Yangon on Tuesday at a traditional protest site near the main university campus and at the central bank.

UN Special Envoy Christine Schraner Burgener spoke on Monday to the deputy head of the junta in what has become a rare channel of communication between Myanmar's army and the outside world.

UN spokesman said, "Ms. Schraner Burgener has reinforced that the right of peaceful assembly must fully be respected and that demonstrators are not subjected to reprisals."

"She has conveyed to the Myanmar military that the world is watching closely, and any form of heavy-handed response is likely to have severe consequences."

However, the ongoing unrest has revived memories of bloody outbreaks of opposition to almost half a century of direct army rule that ended in 2011 when the military began a process of withdrawing from civilian politics.

THE HAGUE, 16 February, 2021 (TON): Lord’s Resistance Army Commander Dominic Ongwen’s defense lawyer said the client will appeal the 4 February ruling of the ICC (International Criminal Court) that found him guilty of 61 war crimes against humanity.

The lawyer, Krispus Ayena Odongo argued that Ongwen was a victim who was abducted when he was 9 years old and forcibly conscripted along the LRA ranks raising questions about his mental abilities.

She questions and wants to challenge various parts of the ruling considering his imprisonment and abducted when he was 9 years old, and also his wife’s word on forced marriage.

The lawyer argues that the wife’s testimony should not be used to determine the case’s outcome since it is against the law that an ex-wife cannot stand against the estranged husband.

“Ongwen can only fully and meaningfully participate in his appeal with an Acholi translation of the judgment because he is a special needs person with mental disabilities, and requires adequate time and resources to communicate with and instruct his Counsel,” the statement from the council read.

The defense prosecutor also challenged the language of the document that the court needs to present Mr. Ongwen with a translated 1077 page judgment in Acholi language for he is illiterate and cannot comprehend English.

AMARAVATI, 16 February, 2021 (TON): On Monday, the UN Assistant Secretary-General Satya S. Tripathi called on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The state is promoting nature farming and organic farming, along with providing marketing facilities, Reddy told Tripathi, also head of the NY office of the UN Environment Program (UNEP).

He said the government took steps to train farmers in ‘rythu bharosa’ centers.

The Chief Minister said while focusing on the need for recycling food processing waste, the departments concerned should take this forward.

Touching upon the waste to wealth concept, Tripathi said technology is available to segregate electronic waste from plastic waste through e-clusters.

Both the leaders also discussed the necessity to achieve carbon neutrality through natural farming.

Reports state that the Chief Minister informed the UN official that the state government is ready to provide complete support to the UN and work along with it.

JAZAN, 16  February, 2021 (TON): On Monday, Mohammad bin Nasser bin Abdul Azizi, Jazen Government Prince, signed an agreement with an international firm investing and operating the port of Jazan City for Basic and Downstream Industries.

The signing ceremony was also attended by the Saudi Minister of Industries and Mineral Resources Bander Alkhorayef who highlighted its significance.

He said the port includes a container terminal, general cargo, and dry bulk terminals equipped with the latest handling equipment.

The minister said the development of this port will bolster the Kingdom’s role as a global logistics hub.

It is likely that the first phase of the commercial operation will begin in 2021.

Certainly, the location of the port is of an important maritime transport corridor closer to the countries located in the Horn of Africa and other emerging markets.

WASHINGTON. 16 February, 2021 (TON): An independent commission is to be established as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says “Congress will establish an outside, independent commission to investigate the 6 January attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.”

The commission would be modeled on the inquiry into the 11 September, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the letter by Pelosi stated.

Former President, Donald Trump was impeached for inciting violence; however, the impeachment could not prove his conviction.

Ms. Pelosi said that US Army Lieutenant General Russel Honoré had, over the past few weeks, been assessing the security needs of the Capitol in light of the attack.

"It is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened," she said.

The commission, she said, "would investigate and report on the facts and causes" of the attack; "the interference with the peaceful transfer of power"; and the "preparedness and response" of both the Capitol police and other branches of law enforcement

She also said that, based on Lt Gen Honoré's initial findings, Congress needed to allocate additional funding to "provide for the safety of members and the security of the Capitol".

As Trump’s conviction could not be made and he survived the trial as the Democrat prosecutors failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed to convict him and now demanding a commission to find out the reality behind it.

LUCKNOW, 16 February, 2021 (TON): On Tuesday, PM Modi is to lay the foundation stone of a statue of a warrior king, Suheldev, an icon of the Rajbhar community on his birth anniversary in Bahraich.

The PM will address the people virtually and disclose the programs to beautify the Shravasti, Chittora Lake, and Bahraich on the occasion and also to develop various tourist amenities.

The event will be attended by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Governor Anandiben Patel in Bahraich.

The Modi government has taken a number of steps to honor Suheldev in order to consolidate its position in the Rajbhar community, as in February 2016, the BJP leader Amit Shah had unveiled a statue of Suheldev and also launched a book on him in Bahraich district near the Indo-Nepal border.

The central government had also released a postal stamp, and run a superfast train -- 'The Suheldev Express'. The tri-weekly train covers the breadth of India's most populous state and runs from Ghazipur in Purvanchal to Anand Vihar in Delhi.

After the SBSP (Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party) alliance broke with the BJP last year, the Yogi government had been chalking out plans to commemorate the warrior’s contribution to national unity and also reaching out to the Rajbhar community.

JEDDAH, 16 February, 2021 (TON): Turk Presidential spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin confirmed the decision that its troops will remain in Libya until the Libyan government approves and on the status of the 2019 Ankara-Tripoli bilateral military agreement.

Turkey is preparing to send new Syrian mercenaries to Libya amid international calls for the withdrawal of all foreign fighters in the country said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.

Seth J. Frantzman, executive director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis, said, “Turkey violated an arms embargo by shipping drones and weapons to Libya. The question now is whether Turkey’s involvement will cement a political solution or continue to frustrate it.”

The presence of Turkish-affiliated troops in Libya is provoking debate about the interim government's success in the transitional process under the UN.

Experts have warned that foreign intervention risks undermining the work of the UN Support Mission in Libya to end fighting between the country’s warring factions.

However, according to the Libyan-ceasefire agreement of 23 October, 2020 there was the withdrawal of mercenaries and foreign troops within three months.   

However, Turkey claims that its troops are providing military training to units loyal to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord, and has rejected calls for a withdrawal, despite the expiration of the deadline. About 1,300 Libyan soldiers recently completed Turkish-led training.

“Ankara’s overall goal in the Middle East and North Africa is to partition countries into spheres of influence and then export weapons and mercenaries while dividing the spoils with Russia and largely ignoring local people,” Frantzman said.

“Libya appears to be on the cusp of more peace, with buy-ins from Egypt and other countries,” he added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last Tuesday that Turkey would withdraw its troops “only if other countries withdraw their troops first.”

Frantzman said, “For Turkey to play a positive role instability, it needs to work with Egypt and other countries, rather than appear at odds with most of the region. Sidelining militias and extremists is a key to that.”

Lately, it happened that last January, U.S. called for an immediate withdrawal of Turkish and Russian troops from Libya that came a month after the Turkish parliament passed a motion authorizing an 18-month extension of troop deployment in Libya.

N'DJAMENA, 16 February, 2021 (TON): State leaders of Sahel, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger will be attending a two-day summit I the capital N’Djamena with French statesman, Emanuel Macron through a video link online.

President Macron is seeking to cut the number of troops considering the people’s opinion against the deployment in the Sahel and also to take into consideration the re-elections.  

The meeting comes a year after France boosted its Sahel deployment, seeking to take back momentum in the brutal, long-running insurgency.

The militants remain in control of the territory despite the military successes.

Six UN peacekeepers have been killed in Mali this year alone, and France has lost five soldiers since December.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, according to the UN, while more than two million people have fled their homes.

Now it is said that the military alone cannot defeat the insurgency.

Jean-Herve Jezequel, Sahel director for the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, told that conventional military engagement had failed to deliver a knockout blow.

Last Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for a "diplomatic, political and development surge" to respond to the situation.

Last year, France upped its Barkhane mission in the Sahel from 4,500 troops to 5,100, a move that precipitated a string of apparent military successes.

France had been expected to draw down its troops last month; however, it is not expected to announce any troop withdrawal at N’Djamena despite rumors.  Instead, it is hoping for more military support from the European partners through the Takuba Task Force that is assisting in Mali against insurgency.